


Consultation Hours are Between 2-4 Every Other Thursday

by arianapeterson19



Series: Avengers Shorts [44]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Family, Avengers Tower, Battle, Domestic Avengers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Failed Magic, Fights, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Tony, Loki Does What He Wants, Loki isn't bad, Magic, Mind Manipulation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Avengers, Protective Clint Barton, Protectiveness, Team as Family, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Young, Young Tony Stark, Younger Avengers, but he isn't great either, but not kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-06-03 17:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6619321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arianapeterson19/pseuds/arianapeterson19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“When does hibernation start?” groaned Tony, curling into himself on his favorite couch in the common room of the Tower after Bruce had stitched him up from his latest run in with the bad guy of the week. “Because I am 100% participating in that.”</p><p>OR</p><p>The one where Tony gets cursed and it's a problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Long Lasting

“When does hibernation start?” groaned Tony, curling into himself on his favorite couch in the common room of the Tower after Bruce had stitched him up from his latest run in with the bad guy of the week. “Because I am 100% participating in that.”

When they had arrived back at the Tower, Tony hadn’t even argued with Bruce about getting his side stitched up. He hadn’t fought the pain pills, he hadn’t even protested when they made him change his shirt. Steve and Bruce were both alarmed at the agreeable nature of this version of Tony but Tony simply sat calmly and let them take care of him. Steve was very vocal about his desire to see this side of Tony more often. Bruce was very quiet about his desire to have the normal, more volatile Tony who would be fighting them every step of the way just because. 

“Shut up,” sighed Bruce, ruffling Tony’s hair fondly. “It’s not that bad.”

“Thor has almost perfected the spell that should turn you back to your original age, Stark,” said Natasha calmly. “It won’t be long now.”

Natasha continued to give orders over heard head set, apparently directing a mission from the Tower, several yards away. She had never quite been able to kick her habit of overworking, but that was also in her nature. Being an Avenger kept her closer to home, so she was training to become a handler.

“Then take this down,” said Tony. “This is very important and I may not have mature thoughts like this when I’m all old again and stuff.”

“What?”

“Do you think caterpillars know they’re going to become butterflies, or do they like just build a cocoon and wonder why fuck they are doing it?” said Tony.

“What type of pain medicine did you give the kid, Bruce?” yelled Clint from where he was sitting on the couch next to Tony. “It’s too strong, whatever it is.”

“I gave him the adult recommended version,” snapped Bruce from the kitchen where he was making tea.

“Ugh,” groaned Clint. “I don’t care if he is aged up a million times or down to an infant, you never give Tony more than the kid’s dose of anything. It goes by weight, not by age you idiots and in case you hadn’t noticed, Tony isn’t exactly the heftiest of people!”

“I don’t like to think before I speak,” said Tony with a grin up at Clint, his head pillowed on the archers thigh. “I like to be just as surprised as everyone else.”

Clint couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay fine, I admit it, this is going to be a lot of fun. Can you lie, kid?”

“Nope!” giggled Tony. “I’m moderately upset that the Tower doesn’t have any secret passages. Pepper refused to let me add them – she’s doing this home thing wrong if you ask me.”

“Nobody asked you,” said Clint.

“I know, but that’s never stopped me before,” said Tony.

“Okay,” said Clint, leaning forward eagerly. “Tony, who is your favorite Avenger?”

“Brucie! I love that little bundle of green rage. He has the best pranks and he just really listens man, you know?”

Clint’s face fell a bit. He had thought for sure he would have been Tony’s favorite, they got along, they played video games together and blew shit up - surely that equated true friendship.

“But then I also really like Clint,” continued Tony, looking up at the ceiling. “He’s sort of the one that I know always has my back even when he’s being a complete jerk. So maybe he’s my favorite. No, no Bruce is my favorite. But Clint is also my favorite. Can I have two favorites? I can have two favorites. I’m having two favorites. Yeah. That’s it.”

“Tony, do you like being an Avenger?” asked Steve.

“Being an Avenger is fun. Yeah. I like it! Another!”

“If you like it, why did were you so against it when Fury originally chose you, you know, back when Loki was attaching?”

“Because you guys only needed me to help you defeat Loki. Why on earth would I want to work with you lot full time if the only time you actually talked to me was when Fury ordered you to do so? The hell of it is, I would have helped you guys if you had just asked me nicely. I wanted to prove that I wasn’t doing it for you lot, I was doing it for the world. He only wanted me as a consultant. Hell, I’m still only a consultant, technically. And don’t you think Fury doesn’t hold that shit over my head, always threatening to tell you guys I’m not a real Avenger so you’ll leave if I don’t finish upgrades on time.”

Everyone stayed quiet for some time after that.

“I don’t have parents,” said Tony out of the blue. “So, does that make me Batman? Oh! Or Iron Man! Oh my gosh, I am Iron Man!”

\- Consultation Hours are 2-4 Every Other Thursday - 

It wasn’t until an hour later that Thor made it into the library with the perfected potion.

“This should do the trick,” said Thor, holding out a slightly steaming green concoction to Tony, who was sitting up, leaning against Clint for support. “Drink up.”

“What type of taste should I be expecting?” asked Tony skeptically. “It’s not that I don’t trust you – I’m sure you followed the directions to the dot – but is this a wine that I want to sip or is it a shot that I just knock back?”

“Tony Stark!” scolded Bruce. “You are not legal. You should not be talking about drinking like that. You are an Avenger and have been sober for three years, you shouldn’t joke like that.”

“Oh relax,” laughed Tony. “As if I would ever actually drink now. I just wanted to take advantage of my age one last time and sound like an ignorant young 20 year old who wants to know what it’s like to drink an adult beverage.”

“Not appropriate,” said Bruce, glaring at him with green ringing eyes. “You’re older – well, sort of - you should know better.”

“I’m totally ready to be a real adult again,” said Tony.

And with that, he knocked back the potion, swallowing it in several large gulps.

Everyone paused for a moment, waiting anxiously, until Tony began to glow.

“You didn’t say I would turn into a glow stick!” yelled Tony.

When the glowing finally stopped, Tony collapsed back into the couch, eyes closed, breathing even.

“What did you do, Thor?” yelled Clint, jumping forward to check on the genius who was still the same young age he had been since Loki had cursed him thirteen hours before. “If you killed him, I swear I’m going to-“

“Relax, he’s just sleeping,” said Loki dismissively, appearing in the room near the window.

Clint checked Tony over just the same, only to confirm that it was true, Tony was fast asleep, curled up on his non-injured side. Clint sighed, pulled a blanket over Tony’s shoulder, and sat back.

“I thought that potion was supposed to turn him back,” growled Clint, glaring at Loki and Thor.

“I was trying to get here in time to explain to my oaf of a brother that the potion needed to be administered at sunset to make it work properly but it turns out I was a bit late.”

“So what happens now?”

“Now, unfortunately, Stark is stuck as a 20 year old permanently. He will have to age again. In a sense, for him the clock has been moved back.”

“How are we going to explain this to the press?” asked Pepper, kneeling next to the coffee table, surrounded by paper work.

“I could alter the minds of everyone,” offered Loki, looking far more eager than was necessary. “Make it so everyone remembers a different timeline for the genius.”

Thor and Pepper exchanged looks, both clearly weighing the pros and cons of messing with more magic to fix what magic had started in the first place.

“Do it,” said Thor at last.

With a gleeful grin, Loki rubbed his hands together and began his complicated spell. What he had failed to mention was that when it was over, he would not have changed the minds of just the world, he would have done much more.


	2. Consequences

Loki sat back, invisible, and admired his handy work. Tony was still young, twenty years old. Everyone else had remained their same ages but now, instead of just the world getting a new timeline, Loki had also given the Avengers the same timeline. They had still saved New York the year before, Tony had been kidnapped and held in Afghanistan when he was 18 instead, everything had evened out. However, the change in timeline had unexpected consequences – and Loki lived for unexpected consequences. This time, it seemed, Fury was still protesting Tony being a part of the Avengers team.

“I, Tony Stark, Supreme Overlord of the Universe, do hereby declare today the best day ever!” said Tony, flying around the practice room with his prototype repulsors, the ones that were just in his shoes and strapped to his hands, not full armor. Loki could see how a young Tony Stark must have been a handful the first time around – this time, with the technology he had, he would be impossible. Loki loved it.

“Shut up and get down here so we can have a proper talk,” said Fury, glaring at Tony from the ground.

“Bow to me, mortal,” said Tony, remaining in the air, laughing.

“No.”

Tony rolled his eyes but floated down because he wanted to get the meeting over with almost as badly as Fury seemed to; both had their own agendas they needed to tend. Tony settled for whiling away the meeting by creating burn patterns on the foam mat with his repulsors, making them swirl about like tiny ice skaters, decorating the ground with their moves. If instrumental music had been playing, it would have been a song like Bolero but Fury had turned off the music when he entered the room. 

“What about you, Stark?” said Fury, pacing out onto the solid, sweat stained mat towards the young genius. “What makes you so special that you have Captain America vouching to officially make you the youngest member of the Avengers?”

“It’s probably my boyish charm and impishly good looks,” shrugged Tony, leaning back against the wall and crossing his legs at his ankles, clearly at ease. “I mean, it could also be the fact that I’m just that good at my job, but hey, I like having options.”

“This is only going to end badly for you, you know that right?” said Fury, only mildly curious about the boy his best assassin was telling him to kill and his best sniper was telling him to keep.

“Why is everyone so bent on seeing the end of me?”

“Because everyone honestly thinks you deserve to die.”

Fury slammed his booted foot onto the mat, making a muffled but intimidating sound that echoed around the room.

“My friend Tiberius thought that too and yes, his name was actually Tiberius,” said Tony after several minutes, staring at the director with eyes that swallowed galaxies and were impossibly young. “Tiberius was my first friend – we met at a fancy boarding school Howard paid to keep me away from him – and he had the spirit of a traveler or something fancy like that. He was nice, older than me – but then again almost everyone worth talking to is – and we got along well. He didn’t mind that I was younger and smarter, not at first. Then we met college.”

Tony stood up and noted his team mates gathered around the edge of the practice area, all waiting with bated breath to see where it was headed.

 

“I liked to think that Tiberius was like an ostrich and could bury his head in the faded green turtle sandbox we found one day outside of campus,” said Tony slowly, hardly noticing the others were still there, going back to staring steadily at the director. “He had a house in college he let me stay in sometimes when I wasn’t in the mood for the dorms. In the middle of the guest bedroom was a homemade spaceship that I swore was ready to whisk me away or exterminate the human race - same thing most days - but I should have been a time traveler. Or maybe I that’s just where I binge watched Doctor Who.”

Tony shook his head as if to shake away cobwebs and get back on task.

“My heart skipped a beat one day and it hurt like hell. Tiberius watched from his kitchen table as I threw the first version of my new computer on the ground - an impressive feat considering how many pieces that thing was in - the hole in my heart I’ve had since birth acting up, snorting his white powder to impress his new friend Justin but it was just a pixie stick. In his old life, before he became buddies with Justin and changed his name to Destruction or something equally stupid, he wore black skinny jeans and purple shirts but Justin is partially the reason Destruction exists; he just had to go to Paradise Lost that night. That place was a dump.”

Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as though the next part would cause him physical pain, and maybe it would. But the other’s were barely hanging on, trying to follow the genius in this rare but confusing glimpse into his life.

“I sort of wish there was a witness protection program for real people, the ones who didn’t exactly witness a legal crime but still need a fresh start,” sighed Tony. “It wouldn’t save me like it would have saved Tiberius, but it would have been worth a shot. He was silence and called me the wind, moving, howling, destroying, and sweeping fallen leaves in a corner to jump on. He was holding on to waves but I couldn’t stop the time.”

Tony turned to his friends and his eyes begged them to understand that he had a point, that it wasn’t just a distraction but an explanation.

“That night, the night Justin finally took over him for good, Tiberius was yelling at me for laughing at the funeral of his fish and all I could think was how I could hear his last meal screaming from his stomach like a tyrannosaurus rex ate a velociraptor and unicorn and they were having a fight about who would pass his coffee stained teeth first. Isn’t that awful? He could have salted the roads with his tears and berated me for smiling but I swept the grit away like I had done for so many of his messes. Tiberius and Justin called me crazy so often I started to believe them, and as Justin took over for good they drugged my ass and locked me in a red phone booth, so I drunkenly dialed the year I wanted to see, but nothing happened. I knew the voices in my head weren’t real but they had good ideas.”

Clint and Steve exchanged confused looks but Coulson kept his Tony, understanding dawning on his face.

“I tied Tiberius to a string and started punching when I realized what Justin had done to him,” continued Tony. “My knuckles bloodied and I'm pretty sure his skin stayed smooth, his beautiful eyes I used to drink in, season colored hair long enough to hide his ivory nubs. I can still feel the blood running down my hands some days. I didn’t want to hurt him but he was trying to destroy me. He eventually got bored, broke the string, and kissed me on the cheek before walking away and the lights rose to show me the crowd of cruel media who had gathered while I wasn’t looking and glared at me as they comforted to ex head angel who only smirked in my direction so I laughed at his pathetic horns because for all intents and purposes, he was the devil.

“Justin laughed at me from the edge of the crowd as he held a mirror to his nose, watching it fog, and I pretended that he kissed out souls, which I guess was fairly accurate since he had gotten a hold of Tiberius. As my final act of revenge I skipped away, waving a gun, giggling. Tiberius hit the ground but I’d only picked a policeman’s pocket. And that was the last time I ever saw him. Either of them, actually. I heard that Justin got bored of Tiberius - Destruction, whatever he is called now - and got a new play toy, but I never heard what happened to Tiberius. I’m not sure I want to; I can’t face him after failing him in such a way. But that’s the story of why I have a restraining order against Tiberius and a bunch of public videos of me acting reckless and dangerous. Which is why you, Fury, and Natasha don’t want me to be a part of the Avengers. Because of something that happened when I was seventeen and without knowing the reason.”

No one said a word. Tony wasn’t looking for words or comfort, he had just needed someone to listen and finally know why he had caused that public scene three years before. For years he had held that secret in, burying it beneath jokes and laughter, but seeing the future he wanted so badly, this time holding his new family hostage in the form of a one eyed ex-pirate, had reminded him about how he had failed the first person to speak to him without complete contempt or malicious intent, and he had come so close to losing them in the same fashion.

“After saying it out loud, I see why you want me dead,” said Tony after several minutes, shifting uncomfortably when no one said anything. “I’d sorta want me dead too.”

For the first time since he had performed the spell thirteen hours before, Loki felt like maybe he had gone too far on this one. Unfortunately it was too late to change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will help this make more sense, promise. I'm going to have a lot of fun with 20 year old Tony.
> 
> Always,  
> Ari


	3. Protesting

“Tony?” said Steve, sitting down next to the genius several hours after Fury was escorted out. “What was that all about?”

“All what?” said Tony, tapping away on his tablet, not really paying attention to Steve.

“All that stuff you told Fury about Tiberius. What was that all about?”

“Are you kidding me? I was drunk off my ass. I’m surprised I was speaking English.”

“I’m not sure you were, man,” said Clint, picking up a gaming controller. “Pretty sure half of what you said was gibberish.”

“But you did mention a Tiberius and Justin several times,” said Natasha, leaning against the doorframe, glaring at Tony. “We all know about your altercation with Tiberius Stone several years ago.”

“Um, I don’t,” said Steve, raising his hand bashfully. “What happened?”

“Basically Tony lost his shit on national television, beat up Tiberius Stone, stole a policeman’s gun, and got arrested,” explained Clint.

“But I was under-aged and my parents were dead, so I got to play the orphan card so the whole thing blew over,” said Tony. “However, Fury hates me for that. Well, and other reasons but he doesn’t want me on the team because I never took responsibility for my actions that day.”

“Why?” asked Steve. 

“Because Tiberius was an asshole! Everything was going great, I had a real friend for the first time in forever, and then fucking Justin comes along and just ruins everything. Justin wanted both of us to work with him, collaborate on some projects, but he liked to cut corners and I hated that. But it turns out Tiberius didn’t have any such issues and joined Justin on the projects. That would’ve been fine but then Tiberius stole some of my work and sold it to Justin. I found out and confronted him but Tiberius was never an idiot and he knew I’d catch him. So he was prepared, he called the media so everything was caught on tape. Thing escalated, Justin brought a gun but I picked his pocket, which is how I ended up with a gun. Justin had stolen it from a policeman but I stole it from Justin so I got blamed.”

“What was the bit about Paradise Lost?”

“It was a club Justin and Tiberius met at.”

“Where are Tiberius and Justin now?” asked Natasha.

“Justin is in jail I think. I don’t know where Tiberius ended up. Hopefully somewhere cold and dark.”

Tony sat back, tucking his legs under and surveying the room. He was surprised that everyone looked so upset by his story.

“Look,” said Tony. “It’s not a big deal.”

“It’s a big deal when you think you should be dead!”

“I’m not suicidal, Cap! I just can see where people are coming from. I’m sorry that not all of us grew up loved and adored. Some of us have enemies and people who would love to watch us burn.”

“And you think Fury is one of those people?” said Natasha.

“Yes. You used to be one of those people, which is pretty stupid considering all the shit you did. I’ve never held it against you that you were a fucking assassin spy who was trained to murder people from a young age because you don’t do that anymore. So I really don’t think you’re the one to judge me for shit I’ve done.”

“You’re an asshole,” said Natasha softly, his words stinging.

“I’ve never claimed to be anything more,” replied Tony. “Maybe that’s what Fury hates. He can’t use my flaws as blackmail because I’ll own up to them.”

“Forget Fury,” said Steve, waving his hands. “Kid, we want you on our team but you’re reckless. I can’t be in the middle of battle worrying that you’re going to do what I asked.”

“I won’t always be doing what you asked,” said Tony simply. “But if I’m not doing what you told me to, it’s probably because I saw something better. And I can’t go into battle with a bunch of old people knowing they don’t trust my judgment.”

Silence moved into the Tower. Both parties had points but the progress they had made towards becoming a team after the Battle of New York (and Loki still felt a twinge of guilt for that one) was not enough to settle this old argument right away. It fascinated Loki that even with the altered timeline they were still having the same arguments, just for different reasons. The god was starting to wonder if Fury protested Tony Stark’s involvement in the Avengers on principle instead of for valid reasons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told you that this chapter would help make sense of the last one. Also we should note that last chapter was written on very little sleep and jet lag brain, so yeah. I'm much more rested now.
> 
> Always,  
> Ari

**Author's Note:**

> So when I said I would be updating every story I currently am working on in the next 3 weeks I also meant to add I would still be posting new stuff because I have issues and ideas and why not?
> 
> Always,  
> Ari


End file.
